London--European stock markets pushed higher on Thursday as traders focused on the Greek debt saga and outlook for interest rates on both sides of the Atlantic.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index climbed 0.77 percent compared with Wednesday's close to trade at 6,990.72 points, while Frankfurt's DAX 30 grew 0.53 percent to 12,099.13 points and the CAC 40 in Paris advanced 1.02 percent to 5,189.32 points.
In foreign exchange, the European single currency slid to $1.0736 from $1.0780 late in New York on Wednesday.
"Athens has vowed to repay the IMF today and the market is optimistic the agreement will be honoured," said David Madden, market analyst at IG trading group.
Greece on Thursday made a 459-million-euro loan payment to the International Monetary Fund, an official said, with the country's precarious finances having been closely monitored since the arrival of a new hard-left government in January.
The new Greek government is engaged in difficult negotiations to renegotiate the terms of its EU-IMF bailout, and as a result has received none of the remaining payments left in the multi-billion loan package.
Later this month, Athens has to make interest payments of nearly 400 million euros and roll over 2.4 billion euros in six- and three-month treasury bills due to mature on April 14 and 17.
Athens on Wednesday raised 1.14 billion euros in six-month treasury bills. On Thursday it announced the sale of another 625 million euros in three-month bills next week.
Meanwhile, Portugal saw the yield on its two-year bonds briefly fall into negative territory on Thursday, joining Germany and France.
The ECB's 1.1-trillion-euro bond buying programme has seen the rate of return for short and even medium-term sovereign debt fall into negative territory for several eurozone countries.
AFP
